Midterm Elections Making History Before the Big Day

Early turnout has surpassed early voting from 2014. More than 24 million Americans have already voted.

(Published Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018)

Nearly twice as many early or absentee ballots have been counted in the 2018 elections, already far outpacing the total from 2014, NBC News reported.

More than 24 million votes were counted with six days to go before Election Day. At the same point in 2014, just shy of 13 million votes had been counted, signifying a shift among voters toward early voting.

And this year's vote to date already outpaces the total number of early ballots submitted in the last midterm elections, 21.2 million.

Republicans have a slight edge in early voting this year, making up 43 percent compared to Democrats' 41 percent. But their edge in the last midterms was two percentage points bigger.

Early Voting Turnout: 2018 vs. 2014

Just one day before Election Day, 2018 early voting numbers in 27 states have already surpassed early voting in the previous midterm elections, according to data collected by Michael McDonald of the United States Elections Project. Early ballots submitted for six states doubled compared to ballots submitted for 2014.

Click on each state to see the number of early votes cast there so far. Some states may not have data for both years.